Yes. Sadly Yes. Definitely yes.

The latest seasons kinda make the San Francsico season look like Hemingway, sad as that is.

I watched two episodes last night. I promptly gave up on the idea that America could ever be the greatest nation in the world.

Agreed. those first few seasons were relevant though. It turned into drivel shortly after. I think its just a social barometer of the times and the idiocy that is America2008.

What is the price of being an idiot in America? A relatively comfortable life? A life where you can buy all over hoodies and drink?

Life in the United States isn't hard enough and there is little incentive to achieve more.

Personally, I prefer to watch re-runs of Puppy Bowl IV on the Animal Channel.

Why do gangsta' wannabe's grab their crotches like that all the fucking time? Are they afraid their dick will fall off or are they getting off?

To every group that claims that fictionalized sex and violence on TV causes crime and promiscuity---open your fucking eyes! It is shows like this that broadcast people their suposed piers doing and saying things that are not appropriate in any other context and making them believe that it is OK to behave that way.

It's things like this that make me wish for an old fashioned zombie uprising.

@9, it is crap like this that makes me favor selective nuclear bombing of select targets within the United States.

This is SO not helping the image of African Americans...

I long for the simpler days of Real World Seattle when snarky residents taunted the cast and Big Gay Stephen bitch slapped Lyme Disease Irene and Mega Sex Bomb David ran around shirtless and dumbass Janet starts smoking a cigarette high atop the Himalayas and proceeds to pass out...

Good Times.

I'm shocked that no one can see the greatness here. I put this current season of the Real World on par with The Office (UK). I haven't watched the show in years, but started on the advice of a trusted friend who swore that it was some next-level comedy genius. It's pretty much equal to The Office in its mix of ad-lib material and (clearly) scripted events. The cast members are just a totally different, and totally American, breed of douche bags. I can't get through half an episode without laughing myself to tears at least once. It's only depressing if you take it at all seriously.

Does anyone actually watch that anymore?

I think I flipped past one episode, and it was worse than a bad soap opera.

Which one is Greg? I couldn't hear for all the shouting. I don't even really understand what it is they are getting their panties in a bunch over.

And when are we going to finally get over Gangster Chic look? It's worse than worst 70's polyester from Sears.

This is disgusting on many levels and is not a show I would ever watch. If any one of those men had used the n-word as a perjorative he would've been expelled immediately, why does MTV allow the use of faggot in that sense?

These are the people who walk around your neighborhood now.

Jebus. This looks like some freakish phych experiment. Lets put a bunch of psychotic lunatics in a bowl, and see how long it takes before they start killing each other. It is like MTV is doing everything in their power to induce this trainwreck. Here is the gasoline, here is the match, lets see what happens?

I watched the first 2 or 3 seasons, and kind of enjoyed it. But I stopped watching before they even made it to Seattle. I had no idea this was still on the air.

I was at least as shocked to hear this morning that American Idol is still on and that people in my office have enough time to waste to sit through it

Shows like this make me happy that when I was growing up my hippie mother believed that watching T.V. makes you dumb and refused to have an 'idiot box' in the house.

Sigh. The first season rocked. As a teenage closeted homosexual in rural Indiana I can still remember my mother's gasp when Norm kissed his boyfriend--that guy who had a TV talk show not too long after. Something Perez, perhaps? What a great show that was.

This ain't nuthin'. What was that other one, "Bad Girls"? Drug-addicts with implants, 50-IQs, and major psychological disorders locked in a house together, where there only forms of recreation were weeping, screaming, fistfighting, and smashing furniture? That was a good one. These dudes are pussies compared the, uh, pussies on display in that show.

Points:

-participants of the shows have caught on that in order to get the most air time and possible career/fame afterward they have to act up

-they're all in hollywood trying to become ~famous~

-what is most sad about this clip is how largely representative the black men are of their braggadocio male psyche. Desperate to fight because it's the only posturing of superiority that they have. fucking clowns, how sad (in this case)

- MTV and reality tv at large knows that casting the most batshit crazy and unstable individuals gets the biggest return on drama ensued

Puppy Bowl IV is awesome.

hold on!! they rerun Puppy Bowl!?!?!? AWESOME!

sincerely,
diggum

@25/26

YES PUPPY BOWL WAS ON LAST NIGHT!
I sent a text to everyone in my phone at the time to alert them.

@12

I too miss the days of Real World Seattle. It has really been all down hill from there.

Hey People! Quit disparaging mentally ill people! These people on the show are assholes, not necessarily mentally ill. In fact, if any of them actually had a *real* diagnosis, they probably would not be allowed to be on the show in the first place. Mentally ill people aren't stupid, ignorant assholes any more than the rest of the population, so please do not lump us with those MTV dorks!

It's comforting to know that except in a very few cases, people like this are ground up and spit out by life.

Of course, the rare exceptions to that rule generally end up in positions of power, so go figure.

I admit that I adored the first season of Real World back in 1991 or 1992. It was such a unique idea to get a bunch of young people together from disparate backgrounds and put them up in a nice flat to see how they cope with culture clash. And really, that first New York group had a lot going for them. I smile thinking about it. This, of course, was when we thought trying to get along with each other and respecting each other's differences was a priority. We could learn something from this experiment, yes?

But the idea had a time clock ticking down its novelty and purpose from the get-go. Even the second season, the group in LA, started performing for the cameras. They knew what to expect going in. Soon, it became a struggle between the residents for supreme infamy. Some people from the early seasons wanted nothing to do with Real World, Inc. after their seasons because what they had expected was fun and experience and what it turned out to be for them was some weirdly uncomfortable nightmare circus.

Like so many things, it should have retired - nobly - after that first golden season. This is where British TV has it way over American TV. They know when to end something (at its height) leaving everyone with wonderful memories and an ever-abiding respect for the project. Think of all the limited-run British series that still makes the heart beat louder: The Prisoner, Queer As Folk, The Avengers (with Emma), Upstairs, Downstairs, The Duchess of Duke Street, and on and on. But it's in the American corporate DNA to run something into the fucking ground, squeezing every possible cent out of the brand. It's the difference, really, between respecting a artistic enterprise and using that enterprise merely to sell various snake oils.

Sorry about this repost. I had to correct some typos.

I admit that I adored the first season of Real World back in 1991 or 1992. It was such a unique idea to get a bunch of young people together from disparate backgrounds and put them up in a nice flat to see how they cope with culture clash. And really, that first New York group had a lot going for them. I smile thinking about it. This, of course, was when we thought trying to get along with each other and respecting each other's differences was a priority. We could learn something from this experiment, yes?

But the idea had a time clock ticking down its novelty and purpose from the get-go. Even the second season, the group in LA, started performing for the cameras. They knew what to expect going in. Soon, it became a struggle between the residents for supreme infamy. Some people from the early seasons wanted nothing to do with Real World, Inc. after their seasons because what they had expected was fun and experience and what it turned out to be for them was some weirdly uncomfortable nightmare circus.

Like so many things, it should have retired - nobly - after that first golden season. This is where British TV has it way over American TV. They know when to end something (at its height) leaving everyone with wonderful memories and an ever-abiding respect for the project. Think of all the limited-run British series that still make the heart beat louder: The Prisoner, Queer As Folk, The Avengers (with Emma), Upstairs, Downstairs, The Duchess of Duke Street, and on and on. But it's in the American corporate DNA to run something into the fucking ground, squeezing every possible cent out of the brand. It's the difference, really, between respecting an artistic enterprise and using that enterprise merely to sell various snake oils.

@25
Yeah, and it's in HD too!

Here's a little perspective from someone who actually watches the show. Greg is the tallest guy. He has hooked up with several women during the show (he calls them Associates) so I'm pretty sure he's not gay. He has more attitude than anyone I've ever seen, in person or on TV. I think he has some Rap background, but is trying to get into modeling. He apparently thinks that models carry that "better than you attitude" 24/7, and looks down his nose at everyone. He has made no attempt to make friends with his roommates. If you hit someone on the show, you are sent home. The roommates, on top of being drunk, are fed up with his attitude and are trying to get him to hit someone so he'll get sent home. By the way, another bodybuilder roommate has been sent to rehab after a drunken rage. The woman in the video is a stripper who had to go home for a court date for domestic violence. Two other girls in the house are Christian hypocrites who look down on the stripper while sleeping around with other guys. Will and Dave, the two shorter guys in this video, are pretty much the only two with any redeeming qualities. Bonus: here's a video of Dave, the blond, running around with nothing but a whipped cream thong: http://www.realworlddailies.com/Video/Pnis-cream/092ECFFFF00A1312F0017001CEDEE

@34

I'm sorry, but any "redeeming qualities" those two might in some way possess kind of fly out the window with the evidence of ass-holery presented in that horrendous clip. There are certain lines you just shouldn't cross- playing the "faggot" card, and doing it to describe the reason for his father's death, is beyond reprehensible. Even if the guy in question isn't actually gay. It is simply promoting the use of such abusive language, and the rest of their behavior is just as terrible.

It is childish and probably one of the least constructive ways to get your point across, and is obviously only there to draw attention to themselves- not to mention their willingness to perform like that at MTVs whim, as the case most likely is.

Simply put- the Real World is trash. Pure trash. But then again, I haven't seen MTV come up with anything worthwhile or relevant in almost a decade now, so it isn't terribly surprising.